1. Field of the Invention
In general, the present invention relates to after-market child safety seats that are designed for use in automobiles. More particularly, the present invention relates to child safety seats having features that enable the seat to be modified in size as a child grows.
2. Prior Art Description
All modern automobiles are required to have seat belt restraints with shoulder straps for all of the seats in that vehicle. The seat belt restraints, however, are designed to fit an average sized adult passenger. Accordingly, the shoulder straps of the seat belt restraint do not fit properly over a small child. If a seat belt restraint does not fit properly, it will not work as it should during an accident.
Recognizing that seat belt restraints do not fit small children, most states have passed laws requiring that small children traveling in vehicles be seated in a child safety seat. Child safety seats are seats that are placed inside a vehicle on top of the regular vehicle seat. The child safety seat either contains its own restraints that are sized for a child, or elevate a child into a position where the vehicle's seat belt restraints are properly positioned on the child.
Many states require that child safety seats be used until a child turns eight years old and/or reaches 80 pounds or 57 inches. Between birth and the age of eight, children grow rapidly. It is therefore difficult to design a safety seat that properly fits a child throughout that child's first eight years of life. Rather, what has become commonplace, is that parents use different types of child seats during different parts of a child's life. For instance, when a child is first born, the child is usually transported in an infant carrier that also serves as a vehicle child safety seat. Once a child reaches the age of one, a parent buys a toddler child safety seat. Toddler child safety seats have adjustable restraints that can be configured to hold a child between the ages of one and three years. Toddler child safety seats are exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 6,857,700 to Eastman, entitled Adjustable Child Seat For Toddlers To Small Children.
Once a child reaches the size of a typical four year old, the child typically is placed in a booster seat. The booster seat often does not have its own restraints, but rather elevates a child so that the seat belt restraints within the vehicle are properly positioned across the child's body.
It will therefore be understood, that a parent of a child can expect to purchase at least three different child safety seats for a child, before that child turns eight year old. This costs a significant amount of money. Furthermore, due to procrastination of parents, many children sit in undersized seats that do not provide adequate crash protection.
Furthermore, although infant seats and many toddler child safety seats provide protection for the side of a child, many booster seats do not. Booster seats elevate older children so that they can utilize the shoulder straps that come equipped in the vehicle. Booster seats tend not to have side panels because the presence of side panels would prevent the shoulder straps from lying properly across the torso of a child. Consequently, during an accident, booster seats do not provide any side impact protection.
A need therefore exists for an improved child safety seat that is modular in its construction and provides proper protection to a child from newborn to the age of eight. This need is met by the present invention as described and claimed below.